This is an interesting act to check out and follow. Yaksha is a duo composed of Aditya Mohanan on guitar and vocals, and Ishaan Zaveri on handpan. Now, that scene will invariably conjure images of world music and its associated values in many people’s heads, and that’s all right; in fact, their music might often fall in that category. But perhaps that’s too much of a label and something to pigeonhole artists. Luckily, ‘Lacuna’ is more than evocative enough to get as descriptive as one might want to. And that’s sort of what we do here, so along with it being a really nicely made piece of music, that’s a bonus!

‘Lacuna’ is a seven-minute improvised bit of what is essentially a focus on the interplay between the two musicians. The detail in the song doesn’t come from the nature sounds that offer some ambience in the mix, the minimal and clear mix itself, or through instrumentation. Instead, it comes from performance; this is something you will often see in Indian classical music. In fact, there’s shades of that venerable art form here too. The centre of it all lies somewhere between Aditya and Ishaan as they take the song through its ebbs and flows. The song starts out a bit stark and minimal, but when Aditya turns up the energy and volume a bit, Ishaan is right there with him (and vice versa). This is nothing but a guitar and a handpan, but what you end up hearing is something in the vein of a good movie soundtrack. There’s a recognizable motif and a sort of emotional center which tells you very clearly what feelings are trying to be communicated. For ‘Lacuna’, it’s possibly equal parts wonder and calmness, but it’s one of those songs that will sound different to different people on different listen. Which is something you should do, by the way. Listen to it more than once, that is. It’s worth it.